A dramatic final day in the EFL Championship saw a shakeup in the table, as Blackburn defeated Millwall to open the door for Sunderland to get into the promotion playoffs. Millwall held a two-goal halftime lead against Blackburn, which was barely clinging to hope for a playoff spot. However, a capitulation and a late goal […]

Major League Soccer is considering some interesting changes to its playoffs and the number of teams involved. The 2023 season set to start in just a few weeks. Despite this, the league does not have a playoff structure currently set in stone. One of the alterations that could be coming to MLS is 18 teams […]

MLS is considering changing its playoffs structure again, according to The Athletic's Sam Stejskal and Pablo Maurer. The league is looking at expanding the number of playoff games from 13 to 30. Ultimately, the MLS plan is for the playoffs to be a World Cup-style format. This idea to expand the playoffs comes after the […]

Major League Soccer is supposedly looking into ways to change the playoff structure for next season. The Athletic reports the league wants to add more teams, and thus significantly more games, to the playoff picture. The current MLS playoff format consists of 14 teams. As the league has 28 total clubs at the moment, half […]

Injuries, an international break, and a bevy of good matches gave MLS fans a number of games to watch Friday and Saturday.  With the number of games to be played dwindling, every match-up takes on that much more importance, and this weekend the results shook up the Eastern Conference standings. On Friday, a back and […]

In political parlance, the "laugh test" is the method to determine the reality of a proposal or idea, as in if a person laughs when you tell them your solution to a problem, it both unrealistic and ridiculous.  A few weeks back on the MLS Talk podcast (subscribe on iTunes today) I suggested that Chivas […]

What do the Michigan Bucks and DC United have in common? They are the only two teams to score more than two goals against the Chicago Fire in 2012, but last night the Fire could only blame themselves (and not dodgy turf or a backup XI) for an embarrassing loss.  With a loud but small home town […]

Team: Colorado Rapids Coach: Oscar Pareja Last Season: 12-9-13, 5th West, 6th Overall Twitter Hashtag: #Rapids From MLS champions to gutted in the past season, the Colorado Rapids enter the season wondering "what if".  A new front office and new coach will try to repeat the incredible playoff run of two years ago with an older and more injury-prone […]

Poor New York Red Bulls. In a season when it was all supposed to come together (young stars! established DPs! weak conference! newish stadium!) it all fell apart.  New York struggled all season and barely made the playoffs, defeating a floundering Dallas side before falling in the conference semi-finals.  The offseason has not been kind […]

Chivas USA had a new head coach and a new system last season, but after a slow start the team looked to be set in neutral in the competitive Western Conference.  However, the acquisition of Juan Pablo Angel and a too late run at a playoff spot gave this team a bit of life and […]

As our long-time readers know, MLS Talk likes to provide serious, well-thought out news analysis mixed with offbeat and laughable soccer-related thoughts.  This is the latter type of post. Prior to First Kick 2011, the MLS Talk writers got together to give some predictions for the upcoming season.  At the time, we promised we'd resurrect […]

Anyone who has been looking for a new home understands the feeling of displacement that comes with it: the yearning for something new and different which you can model after your vision, while still feeling unsettled because you haven't found that perfect place yet.  In June, MLS fans looked at Kansas City and either pitied or ignored […]

Just weeks before the beginning of the season, MLS yesterday finally released its playoff format for the 2011 season.  As dreaded, it will include 10 of the 18 MLS teams, and officials acknowledged the number could change as more teams join MLS.  As for the current structure, the playoffs will go as such: The top […]

Amidst our discussions over USL-PRO and the USSF soccer pyramid, the NASL released some good news this week and announced its 2011 season schedule. The NASL, now composed of eight clubs, will have each club play 28 games and face each opponent four times.  The season runs from April 9 through September 24, with the […]

This week USL PRO continued its development as a USSF minor league by releasing its playoff schedule. Last week it had released a season schedule and division format outlining how its clubs would compete in its first year of existence as USL PRO. The playoffs will consist of three rounds, with the top three seeds […]